Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.40

v1.c6.40

British scholar Joseph Needham and Chinese scholar Qian Baocong thought that ancient Indian mathematics was also influenced by China. In *Zhong guo shu xue shi* (*A History of Chinese Mathematics*), Qian Baocong listed 14 kinds of evidence including place value digitals, four arithmetic operations, fraction, three columns, arch area and ball volume, simultaneous linear equations, negative number, Pythagorean proposition, circumference ratio, method of double differences, linear congruence, indefinite equation, extraction of root and the method of making the sine table to prove that Indian mathematics was influenced by Chinese mathematics. Indian scholar B S Yadav thought that historically both India and China had substantial exchanges in mathematics but similar computational problems such as folding bamboo and ball volume equation in Chinese and Indian mathematical works do not fully explain the nature of mutual exchange. The issue of mutual exchange and influence between ancient Chinese and Indian mathematics needs further extensive probing.